Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the world’s most ubiquitous building and construction plastics, used in drinking and waste water pipes, window frames, flooring and roofing foils, wall coverings and cables as a modern alternative to traditional materials such as wood, metal, rubber and glass. These products are often lighter and more durable and used responsibly offers many performance advantages as a surface material due to its ease of use and versatility.

At Inscape, a Canadian designer and manufacturer of furnishings for the workplace, its Nuform work surfaces are made of MDF core finished with 3D foil, which is 100% PVC laminate. The foil encapsulates MDF and it does not require applying edge-band. As a result, Nuform work surfaces have lower off-gassing versus other laminate tops available in the market.

As part of its environmental management procedures, Inscape carefully manages all of its extraneous waste products within its manufacturing facility. PVC waste is the excess cut out of material from PVC foil used in the manufacturing process.

Since 2015, local waste handling facilities in Ontario no longer accept PVC in its landfill sites, so Inscape set about finding a partner that could use the excess waste material and thereby eliminate this potentially harmful waste from the environment.

Through the Recycler's Exchange website, Inscape received interest from BessTrade, a recycling company in the Netherlands. After sharing PVC samples and arranging a site visit to Inscape’s Holland Landing facility through a local partner, BessTrade confirmed the PVC specs met their needs and agreed to pick up the 50,000 lbs. of PVC waste they had been bundling and storing at their facility for the last 5 years. BessTrade turns Inscape’s PVC waste into reprocessed granulate to be used in a broad range of consumer products manufactured by its clients across Europe.